2023-07-12 15:26:45
“The report passed by the COVID special committee is unsatisfactory for the FPÖ, since the role of EU Commission President von der Leyen in procuring vaccines has not been clarified”
Vienna (OTS) – “The details of the EU procurement of the corona vaccine are apparently deliberately being concealed,” said the Liberal MEP Georg Mayer as part of the report on the COVID special committee in the European Parliament that was passed today. He found that Parliament was being duped in the process. “The NGO Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) suspects that this even happens in an interaction between Parliament President Metsola and Commission President von der Leyen – both from the EPP,” said the Styrian MEP
“The special committee set up in May last year was initially denied access to the unredacted vaccine contracts. Then, last autumn, only a small and unofficial so-called vaccine contact group of members of parliament was shown the unredacted contracts in a secure reading room, but they were not allowed to say anything regarding them for confidentiality reasons,” said Mayer.
He also criticized Pfizer’s direct influence in view of the documents regarding vaccine procurement. “In the last phase, the COVID Committee then received a questionnaire from the newly created EU authority for public health emergency response, HERA, which CEOs reported said that answering the questions might speed up access to the unredacted documents. The questions revolved around why one wanted to have access to the unredacted contracts and then what one intended to do with the information. The piquant thing regarding it: This questionnaire was written by Pfizer, i.e. the contractor for the bulk of the vaccine procured by the EU,” says Mayer.
He emphasized that EU Commission chief von der Leyen had dealt with the largest vaccine tranche worth around 35 billion euros directly with Pfizer boss Bourla. “Ms. von der Leyen has since refused to release her communication on this matter. Here there is a reasonable suspicion that something was not right. It would be all the more important to publish the unredacted contracts,” said the liberal MEP.
Mayer is unsatisfied with the report of the COVID special committee that was passed in plenary today. “The wording now contained in the report, that the Commission may publish the unredacted contracts if it is “legally possible”, only cements the current status – and that means concealing and continuing to keep the full wording of the contract secret,” stressed Mayer. He demands full transparency in vaccine procurement and that Commission President von der Leyen disclose her role in the controversial vaccine deal. “Here, private interests are put before the interests of the public, which has a right to know exactly what the terms of the billion-dollar vaccine procurement deal were and what role von der Leyen played in it,” said the liberal MEP.
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